Institutes

Values Statement

The Pediatric Stress and Anxiety Disorders Clinic (PSADC) specializes in early identification, comprehensive evaluation, and evidence-based treatment of anxiety disorders in diverse youth from age 18 months through older adolescents. The PSADC has a multidisciplinary team that includes Sucheta Connolly, MD (Director); David Simpson, PhD., LCSW (Clinician and Clinic and Research Coordinator); Liza Suarez, PhD (Clinician and Research Director); program assistant Darnetta Byndum; and trainees in child psychiatry, psychology, social work, and medical students. Individualized treatment programming may include cognitive behavioral therapy, parent guidance, family therapy, interventions at school, and medication management.

Anxiety disorders treated include: Separation Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Selective Mutism, Specific Phobias, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Anxiety-related school refusal/school phobia behavior and adjustment to a variety of stresses or traumas including serious physical illness are addressed as well. Drs. Connolly, Simpson, and Suarez, collectively, have many years of experience treating anxious youth and their families. Additionally, more specialized assessment and treatment expertise includes Selective Mutism (Connolly), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Simpson) and Trauma and its comorbidity with Substance Abuse (Suarez). Clinicians and researchers work collaboratively in the PSADC to understand risk and protective factors in diverse youth with anxiety disorders, facilitate transportability of evidence-based practices for anxiety to the school and community, and explore neurobiologic correlates of childhood anxiety.

PSADC is accepting referrals for enrollment in a treatment programs for teens aged 13-17 who have experienced trauma and are using drugs or alcohol.